Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1887-01-14
Gle Car,fostfr Jntelligentss
LANcAsTER. JANUARY H. 1857.
The WaY They View II.


from the unfairness that is universally be-
lieved to be practiced in railroad manage
ment. Two notable arguments from the
railroad standpoint have been made by |
Henry V. Poor, the publisher of Poor |
railroad manual, and by Senator Leland |
Stanford, a railroad president. Mr.. Poor's
argument is in harmony with its opening
statement that " an ideal system Of trans
portation in country like the United
States would be one by which the producer
should suffer no disadvantage on account
Of his distance from market one by which
the wheat growers in Dakota should re.
ceive the same profit on their crop
az the growers In the Genessee valley" or
In Lancaster county. 1t is easy to under
stand how one who has this ideal of trans
portation system, finds himself at issue
with more common opinion that an ideal
transportation system is one in which the
charge is made according to the cost. The
railroad manager is not, as Mr.. Poor
seems to think him, a natural legisla-
tor. 1t is not his duty to see that Dakota
and Lancaster county make like profit on
growing grain for delivery at Atlantic
ports. 1t is the railroad companys busi-
ness to obtain all the business it can get
at the best prices it can get, provided that
it treats all its customers alike; which
Is q common law obligation upon 1t that 1t
cannot get away from. When it engages
in the business of carrying people and
goods it engages to take all that come to
it at like prices for like service. This is
incumbent upon it, Independently of its
chartered character which imposes upon
1t additional obligation to conduct its
business with fairness to the public.
Senator Stanford thinks it great hard
ship that a railroad company should be
held to any greater obligation to the public
than an individual would be. He declares
that It gets nothing of conse-
( quence from the public, as even the
eXercise Of yAe right of eminent domain by
which it secures its right of way is open to
anyoAe who gets charter of which
there isSo monopoly to the one first in the
field. He says that the railroad builder
risks his money in the enterprise, and
should have free control of it, without in
reference from the public, which has no
part OF lot in the undertaking.
Senator Stanford talks like a railroad
president. He takes view of the situation
which isso wholly partial that it is difficult
to credit him with the intelligence which is
awarded him, and which he must have to
have secured the prizes which his life
has taken. But how can it be
that an intelligent railroad president
will deny the subsection of chartered
company to the state that charters it, and
without whose charter it could not exist :
Costless as the charter may be 10 the public
which gives it, it is certain that without it
Senator Stanford s companywould not exist
and even he should suspect that he obtained
something of great value when he got his
public grant. And he should remember
that the Pacific railroads and many others
in the wild West got valuable grants of
land and bonds from the United States {;
and that it especially does not lie in their
mouths to deny the right of the public to
interfere in their management.
Senator Stanford does not seem to
know that even without a charter the
law holds his company, as common car
rier, to Just and equal treatment of Its
customers. He declares that the Southern
Pacific railroad, competing with the 18TH
mus lines, takes anything that it can get
for carriage between the oceans, and
charges higher price for goods that are
dropped on the way. He justifes this by
Aoclarivr, hat 10 E..
to make small profit on the through
business than TO make none and
that the profit it makes on its
through business enables it the better to
serve its local trade. This is familiar
and specious argument under which the
local traffic Of railroad is shabitually made
to pay its cost and profits. The cost OF
railroad service, the senator says, is made
up Of operating expenses, fixed expenses
and semi-fxed expenses. The first is made
up OF the cost OF fuel, oil, wages of train
hands and wear and tear; the other eX.
penses are such as are incurred by the com.
pany, whether its running trains are more
or less. The railroad mans charge ad.
vances from the cost of running the trains.
as its lowest point, and he considers what
ever he gets over this to be gain. A fair
estimate of the cost of his service would of
course include share of the fixed charges:
and they would be speedily included if
they could be got.
The question for the public is whether
the interest of the railroad company to
carry goods at the bare cost of the opera.
= &ng expense of the train is the interest OF
y public and the general conviction is
mat It Is not aud if for no other reason
because 1t puts too great power in this
hands OF the railroad company to build n,
and tear down theinterests of communities
IL is obvious that gross wrong is suf
ferei by FL Paso in being charged IS
for the carriage of ton of good